Society · Under-five mortality · Nigeria
Nigeria’s under-five mortality fell to 115.6 per 1,000 live births in 2024.
115.6 per 1,000 live births
2024
Down 1.2 per 1,000 live births from 2023.
Updated 18 Oct 2026
In plain words
115.6 per 1,000 live births
What it is. Under-five mortality is the probability that a child born alive will die before their fifth birthday, expressed per 1,000 live births. It follows a group of births through the early years, when infection and undernutrition carry the highest risk. It covers deaths from every cause in that age band, so it reflects health care, sanitation and household income together. Stillbirths and deaths after the age of five fall outside it, and so do the causes behind each death.
Lower is better. Each death counted here is a child lost before school age, so a lower rate means more children survive early childhood. Nigeria's latest figure, for 2024, is 115.6 per 1,000 live births, down from 116.8 per 1,000 live births a year earlier. That is a fall of 1.2 per 1,000 live births, or 1 per cent. Since 2015 the rate has ranged from a high of 117.8 per 1,000 live births in 2015 to a low of 115.6 per 1,000 live births in 2024, so the latest reading is the lowest in that span.
Why it matters. A rate of 116 means that about 116 in every 1,000 babies born alive in Nigeria do not reach their fifth birthday. Families face that risk with each birth, and it weighs on decisions about household size and spending on health care. The state carries the pressure to expand vaccination, maternal care and primary clinics. The fall since 2015 is small, so the next annual reading will show whether the decline is picking up.
| Period | Under-five mortality · Nigeria |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 117.8 per 1,000 live births |
| 2016 | 117.4 per 1,000 live births |
| 2017 | 117.2 per 1,000 live births |
| 2018 | 117.2 per 1,000 live births |
| 2019 | 117.4 per 1,000 live births |
| 2020 | 117.4 per 1,000 live births |
| 2021 | 117.6 per 1,000 live births |
| 2022 | 117.5 per 1,000 live births |
| 2023 | 116.8 per 1,000 live births |
| 2024 | 115.6 per 1,000 live births |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Under-five mortality, Nigeria, 2024; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 18 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/society/under-five-mortality/nigeria
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
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Methodology
Probability of dying before the age of five, per 1,000 live births. Unit: per 1,000 live births.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series SH.DYN.MORT), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.